How Chains and Damage Work
People say "longer chains mean more damage," but in this game jewel value actually matters more than chain count. Once you understand the mechanics, where you invest your effort changes.
What makes up your damage
The damage from a single merge is determined by roughly the following product.
1. The jewel value multiplier (the big one)
The higher the value after merging, the higher the multiplier. Using a value of 8 as the baseline (1.0x), it grows slowly up to 64 and then climbs sharply past 64.
| Value after merging | Multiplier |
|---|---|
| 8 | 1.00x (baseline) |
| 32 | 1.59x |
| 64 | 2.00x |
| 128 | 3.20x |
| 256 | 5.12x |
| 512 | 8.19x |
| 1024 | 13.11x |
| 2048 | 20.97x |
There is no cap. In other words, the bigger the jewels you grow, the stronger you get, with no ceiling. When you are grinding down a high-HP raid boss, creating one big 256 or 512 is more efficient than firing off small chains over and over.
2. The chain bonus
| Chains | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 12 | 20 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Multiplier | 1.00 | 1.33 | 1.67 | 2.00 | 2.10 | 2.40 | 2.80 | 3.60 |
It rises steeply up to 4 chains, then flattens out from 5 onward. That means "consistently hitting 4–5 chains" gives you far better value than "going for a 20-chain." That said, chain count is the trigger condition for a lot of skills, so if you are going for a high-multiplier skill (10x at 8 chains, for example), it is a different story.
3. Element matchups (the elemental triangle)
There is a Fire → Wind → Water → Fire triangle, plus mutual amplification between Light and Dark. An advantage gives you 1.5x, a disadvantage gives 0.7x, and neutral is 1.0x. For details, see Element Gates and Party Building.
4. How skill multipliers stack (read carefully)
This is the part people most often get wrong.
- Active skills do not stack with each other. Even with several running at once, only the single highest multiplier applies
- Leader × sub-leader multiply. Put two allies with the same effect side by side and their multipliers multiply together
- Active multipliers and leader multipliers multiply with each other
So the party that maximizes damage looks like this: put high-multiplier leader skills in the leader and sub-leader slots, then fire a single active with the highest multiplier. Loading the same multiplier active onto all five members accomplishes nothing.
Summary
- Creating big values is what matters most (no cap)
- 4–5 chains is plenty; go beyond that only to satisfy skill conditions
- Active multipliers: only one applies. Leader multipliers: they multiply